What does "cloud-native" development entail?

"Cloud-native" development focuses on building and running applications that fully utilize the advantages of cloud computing. This approach emphasizes scalability, flexibility, and resilience, enabling applications to seamlessly integrate with cloud services and infrastructures. Developers adopt methodologies such as microservices architecture, containerization, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices, which are designed to harness the benefits of cloud environments.

By leveraging cloud resources, cloud-native applications can automatically scale based on demand, take advantage of managed services for improved performance and security, and be deployed in a way that minimizes downtime and maximizes availability. This method contrasts with traditional development practices that may be limited by on-premises infrastructure or older technologies that do not fully utilize the dynamic capabilities of the cloud.